Author Topic: 'IF' by Rudyard Kipling - rather fitting  (Read 1610 times)

Mentalshock

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'IF' by Rudyard Kipling - rather fitting
« on: October 26, 2012, 08:13:33 PM »
If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or, being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or, being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise;

If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;
If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with triumph and disaster
And treat those two imposters just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with wornout tools;

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on";

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings - nor lose the common touch;
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run -
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - which is more - you'll be a Man my son!

Grolleter

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Re: 'IF' by Rudyard Kipling - rather fitting
« Reply #1 on: October 27, 2012, 06:03:16 AM »
Definitely fitting.

I actually have that poem saved in a text file on my computer, along with a couple other favorites ... including this, which also seems rather fitting here:

The Impossible Dream
song from Man of La Mancha
lyrics by Joe Darion

To dream the impossible dream,
To fight the unbeatable foe,
To bear with unbearable sorrow,
To run where the brave dare not go.

To right the unrightable wrong,
To love pure and chaste from afar,
To try when your arms are too weary,
To reach the unreachable star.

This is my quest,
To follow that star --
No matter how hopeless,
No matter how far.

To fight for the right
Without question or pause,
To be willing to march
Into hell for a heavenly cause.

And I know if I'll only be true
To this glorious quest
That my heart will be peaceful and calm
when I'm laid to my rest.

And the world will be better for this,
That one man scorned and covered with scars
Still strove with his last ounce of courage,
To reach the unreachable star.

Victoria Victrix

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Re: 'IF' by Rudyard Kipling - rather fitting
« Reply #2 on: October 27, 2012, 09:23:28 AM »
Dorothy Parker: Frustration
 
If I had a shiny gun,
I could have a world of fun
Speeding bullets through the brains
Of the folk who give me pains;

Or had I some poison gas,
I could make the moments pass
Bumping off a number of
People whom I do not love.

But I have no lethal weapon-
Thus does Fate our pleasure step on!
So they still are quick and well
Who should be, by rights, in hell.

I will go down with this ship.  I won't put my hands up in surrender.  There will be no white flag above my door.  I'm in love, and always will be.  Dido

Quinch

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Re: 'IF' by Rudyard Kipling - rather fitting
« Reply #3 on: October 27, 2012, 01:53:58 PM »
We are not now that strength which in old days
Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are,
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.

Mentalshock

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Re: 'IF' by Rudyard Kipling - rather fitting
« Reply #4 on: October 27, 2012, 04:42:24 PM »